The use and evaluation of study guides with middle school students

Two experiments were conducted with 24 fifth-grade students participating. In the first experiment, quiz performance with study guides was compared to quiz performance without study guides. The group whose students received study guides always scored higher than the group who did not receive study guides. Experiment II assessed the feasibility of students scoring their own study guides. The reliability of student scoring was found to be 93% over all study guides and there were no significant differences between "self-scored" and "teacher-scored" groups on the weekly quizzes.     

A parent advice package for family shopping trips: development and evaluation

THIS ARTICLE REPORTS ON THE PRIMARY STEPS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT ADVICE FOR POPULAR DISSEMINATION: (a) developing advice for one specific problem situation, family shopping trips; (b) testing the advice program for benefit to children and convenience to adults; and (c) packaging the advice so it can be used successfully by interested parents. Systematic observation of 12 families using the written advice package on shopping trips revealed its effectiveness in reducing child disruptions and increasing positive interactions between parents and children. These findings, along with interview information from families, showed that the package is usable, effective, and popular with both parents and children, and thus is ready for dissemination to a wide audience of parents-a step that in itself should involve research and evaluation.     

Patrol evaluation research: a multiple-baseline analysis of saturation police patrolling during day and night hours

The effects of a carefully monitored and increased police patrol on the report of crime were examined in four patrol zones. Overall patrol movement was increased to four times normal levels and slow patrol movement (under 20 mph) to around 30 times normal levels for 10 days. The patrol was active in two zones between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. and in the other two zones between 7:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. A multiple-baseline design and time-series statistical analyses showed statistically reliable changes in reported levels of Part I crime (such as robbery, burglary, and aggravated assault) during both night patrols, but not in the day patrols. In both night-patrol zones, there were also reliable increases from saturation patrol to postsaturation patrol in report of Part I crime after the night patrol was terminated. Neither of the day patrols showed significant crime report changes on termination. Despite statistically reliable decreases in report of crime during nighttime hours, the value of saturation patrolling as a crime-prevention technique was questioned on cost/benefit grounds.     

ON SYSTEMS ANALYSIS IN AUTISM INTERVENTION PROGRAMS

Although intervention technology has grown substantially during the past quarter century, the design of intervention systems has not grown apace. This paper examines organizational arrangements that enhance and diminish treatment effectiveness and argues that defining, measuring, and manipulating systemic antecedent and consequent variables are as important as assessment and intervention on an individual client's behalf.     

WHAT EPISTEMIC VALUES SHOULD WE RECLAIM FOR RELIGION AND SCIENCE? A RESPONSE TO J. WESLEY ROBBINS

Abstract. Postmodernism in science rejects and deconstructs the cultural dominance of especially the natural sciences in our time. Although it presents the debate between religion and science with a promising epistemological holism, it also seriously challenges attempts to develop a meaningful relationship between science and religion. A neopragmatist perspective on religion and science is part of this important challenge and eminently reveals the problems and reduction that arise when pragmatist criteria alone are used to construct a holism that renounces any demarcation between different areas of rationality. In this pragmatist vision for a holist culture, the cognitive resources of rationality are bypassed in such a way that a meaningful interaction between theology and science becomes impossible.     

儿童最初词汇的获得及其过程

本文追踪研究了两名儿童获得最初词汇的过程。结果表明:在儿童最初语音发展过程中,所发出的音节日益丰富、分化,产生了连续音节,随意性和指向性逐渐增强。儿童获得最初词汇的过程,是连续音节逐渐被有指向的词取代的过程。根据连续音节和有指向的词的比例及沟通作用的变化,儿童获得最初词汇的过程可分为各具特点的三个阶段。两名儿童的最初词汇在其词类构成和功能意义上具有很高的一致性。结合两名儿童之间的个别差异,本文还初步探讨影响儿童获得最初词汇的因素——言语中枢和言语器官的发展、认知的发展,并探讨它们之间可能存在的相互关系。     

Empathy and evaluation: Understanding the private meanings of behavior

This paper makes three points. First, empathy cannot be considered an epistemic basis for qualitative research and evaluation. Second, it is, however, a valuable method for understanding the private meanings of words and deeds. Third, this method is not completely reliable for purposes of what Popper called refutation, but is useful in what he dubbed scientific conjecture or the generation of theory. Basic researchers will need to take the necessary steps to subject empathetic hunches to critical examination. However, owing to the exigencies of action settings and decision-making, disciplined conjectures are sometimes the most that evaluators can hope to record.An earlier version of this paper was printed in the Proceedings of the Far Western Philosophy of Education Society, 1989. This version is published with permission of the Far Western Philosophy of Education society. The author is grateful for helpful comments and critisism made by members of the California Association for Philosophy Education. Remaining errors, of course, are the authors responsibility alone.     

Changes in Hungarian academic psychology after the end of “people's democracy”

The paper surveys the last 30 years of Hungarian academic psychology. Around 1989–1990, the time of the great social changes Hungarian psychology was rather Westernized, but still a relatively small scientific field and applied profession. The opening and liberalization of politics made psychology in Hungary a booming profession and a rich research field. Education of psychologists was spreading, and becoming more Westernized in textbook usage and reading materials. Entrance numbers at two universities with 80 students were replaced by 2010 by 6 university programs and about 8000 incoming students. The training system is a Bologna type BA + MA + PhD system, The educational booming has its own problems. As all university subjects, psychology training is also underfinanced, with high teaching loads and a move by university management towards applied areas, neglecting basic research. The research activity is characterized by a fivefold increase of English language publications coming from Hungary over a 20 years period. University research was strengthened, and competitive grant systems were introduced, whth good success aretes by psychologists. Here again, managerial thinking questions many aspects of basic research and liberalized science management. These factors are peculiar to psychology, but they do have an impact on it. The paper gives some details about one chapter of academic psychology, cognitive psychology. Institutionally, support by the Soros foundation in the 90s for the university cognitive programs had as one consequence that three departments of cognition are active in Budapest today. Another aspect of insitutional development was the series of multidisciplinary conferences in Hungary (MAKOG), and Hungarian involvement in international graduate training programs in cognitive science. The most successful cognitive group, at Central European University (5 ERC grants, publications in leading journals) is recently chased out of Hungary by anti-Western and antiliberal legal moves. This would certainly have a detrimental effect on Hungarian cognitive psychology for quite a time.     

Intention-based evaluations of distributive actions by 4-month-olds

Four-month-olds’ ability to consider the intentions of agents performing distributive actions was investigated in four experiments, using the Violation of Expectation paradigm (VoE) (Experiments 1–3) and the Preferential Looking paradigm (Experiment 4). In Experiment 1, infants were presented with two events showing two types of failed attempts to perform a distribution. In an attempt to distribute fairly, the distributor first tried to reach one of the recipients to deliver an apple, he failed, and then attempted to reach the other recipient to deliver a second apple and also failed. In an attempt to distribute unfairly, a different distributor tried unsuccessfully to bring resources always to the same recipient. Infants looked reliably longer at failed fair distribution events, suggesting that they did not just react to the actions outcomes and they attended to agents' intentions. Experiments 2 and 3 assessed alternative explanations based on perceptual factors or affiliative behaviors. In Experiment 4, during the test trials, infants were shown both distributors simultaneously and they preferred to look at the fair rather than at the unfair distributor. Overall, these findings reveal an early ability to take into account distributors’ intentions and a preference for watching agents that tried to distribute resources fairly.